World Tree MUSH

    Location: Nucleus, Binary star-system with unique properties.
    Planet: Gilt, 6th planet out from the stars.
    Rendesvous site: Nothern hemisphere, 'City' space codenamed 'Capital'.

    Those arriving to the planet would find the Vine spitting them out on the surface. While from orbit the planet looked like a mess of broken machinery, from the ground it's a mechanical city, reduced to ruin from millenia of neglect... an ancient Relic world of sorts.

    Meeting them is the lithe frame of a Doll, sweeping its trio of cyan optics around the area, as if mapping it out. "Ah, good. Glad you could all make it. This world is much more dense than the other two we've visited so far... and the Archemedes picked up intermittent lifesign readings, though we couldn't lock them in." Justina's voice rings clear over whatever kind of speaker system is installed in the Doll frame.

    It's eerie, the 'City' is clearly abandoned, but it also seems to have some life in it. It's not as delapidated as it probably should be.

    "We'll attempt to make contact with any locals while searching for the teleportal plinths. They shouldn't be hard to find." adds the scientist.

    MEANWHILE, NEARBY:

    "Stop, Thief! No welcome wagon, hello strango with that good coffee flavour for you! Bao wao biggilyboopy grao. Offer expires while you wait. Operators are standing by!" Small rat-like creatures peer from behind junk piles, out of window ports high up and difficult to see, their fur matted and camouflaged to fit into the mottled backdrop of their home.

    Portals to new worlds; though quite useful for getting around the tree they can be temperamental things. One such mishap has landed Li-Ming in a completely unexpected locale. Frowning, she straightens and turns to see that for once she's not alone. Oh.

    So, she summons up an amiable demeanor and sheathes the blade she'd held bare mere moments ago, hiding it's sparkling blue blade. Her gaze moves to Justina's doll and she inclines her head. "Some kind of expedition? Curious..." She scans the ruins, not really looking for anything in particular. As well, she regards each of the other visitor's in turn before she shifts her weight to one leg to wait for a direction or some manner of guidance; she's here without context and by pure dumb luck. She's the right sort to roll with exploration and adventure, at least! ... Especially if things were to turn nasty.

>> SUMMARY[Li-Ming] >> Li-Ming has joined the party. Your enemies grow stronger.

    Morrigan has been... Morose, to say the least since the events in Veldora. The Warlock arrives without her van for once, just stepping through the vine, with her hands stuffed in the pockets of her robes, Mary Contrary perched on her shoulder.
    "... Hey, Justina." She greets the Doll.
    "Soooo... What should we expect from the locals? Hopefully no cults to world-devouring space fleas from nowhere. Hah hah hah that would be weird and awkward for me."

    Claire follows along, taking a look around. She's got her hand on the hilt of her sword, place is making her feel somewhat uneasy. "So what exactly does a teleportal plinth look like?"

An abandoned mechanical city? Holly's not exactly the best person to ask about such places. The witch wonders if there's any magic artifacts present. "Hi everyone!" She smiles and waves as Servis and Lavaux materialize as well shortly after she arrives. "Oh good, you two made it as well." She's not quite sure where to look if they get seperated, space is huge after all.

 "I don't think there's much to worship unless you're into old technology." Lavaux's not seeing other people around besides the group.

    Justina looks to Li-Ming, acknowledging her presence before she turns to Claire and Holly. "A square construct with four pillars. It should activate when we get close and a central plinth will rise up and require an input of energy to activate. There are four locations on this planet. Other teams are working on the three other locations.")] she replies, and finally turns to Morrigan.

    It's hard to tell what the half-elf is thinking behind the emotionless faceplate of the Doll, but her voice is a little softer in tone. "Hello, Morrigan." She knows how shaken up the warlock is over that incident. "We know nothing about the locals. However they seem to be using the old communications grid to capture various transmission signals... One such receiver is on the projected path to the plinth, so we can investigate without going out of our path too much." She looks around a little more, then points down the main thoroughfare and starts walking.

    MEANWHILE, NEARBY:

    "And they're off to the races! Lets see if they can handle this sleek sexy import. With turbo handling!" Nothing happens yet, but the sound of junk falling from a pile might alert the group to something going on.

    "Capturing transmission signals?" Morrigan does ask. "Like radio signals?" The Warlock clarifies her own question. "Well I guess we can check out that receiver too if it's not out of the way." And that seems to be the plan.
    The falling junk makes pointed ears twitch and Morrigan turns her head that way, glowing eldritch green eyes squinting at the pile.
    "Huh.

    Well, nothing insane, mind bending or violent so far. Fantastic! The wizard rolls her shoulders and steps from her spot with a rattle of light armor as she casts a look around at the city ruins. Near-ruins, maybe? She scans with her eyes of course, though she leans heavily into her ability so see magical auras and effects, "I suppose you already have a plan in place for this energy supply, then?"

    She's likely to miss well-concealed non magical things, dividing her focus as she is, then comments to the conversation bouncing around the group. "I have very much had my fill of cults and die hard fanatics. That they're using some form of technology to communicate is at least promising. Unless they're proselytizing some manner of banal doomspeak throughout."

    The distant crash gets her head turned and looking in the direction she thinks the sound is coming from but, seeing nothing, what can she do? She's certainly not going to pounce upon a trash heap and begin flattening the surrounding area. Not over a small commotion, anyway.

    To Morrigan, "Indeed. They'll draw near or they won't. Let us proceed!"

"So they're like the ones on Hoop. Except not frozen over?" Holly looks over at Claire remembering that mission. "It's kind of strange that the pedistals on all these different planets went down?" The witch isn't the most perceptive person either especially when magic isn't involved.

 "Maybe the ancient maintence crew went on strike?" Lavaux figures someone hasn't been doing their job.

 "Or it's more likely they were wiped out, be carefully where you step, Holly." Servis is a bit concerned. She looks down at her boots for anything that she might trip over.

    Justina glances over at the sound... but continues walking without referencing it. "The system was only recently discovered, and it appears to be a multi-part megastructure of some kind. Many pieces forming a larger whole... we have seen some automated systems, but they may hve become inactive or impaired as the systems on the planets shut down over the many millenia it's been offline." remarks the half-elf.

    That's about when the wall of a building ahead explodes outward in a very flashy manner. The dust obscuring the form of something as it strikes up with a very catchy jingle of some kind of news program. It's familiar to anyone who has T.V. in their world. It then 'speaks', but it's a very strange cadance. "Framed in enamel! Resists Fire, Rain and Corrosion for up to FIVE YEARS!"

    The dust clears a bit, but then junk from above, dislodged by the structural collapse beneath it, falls atop the thing and buries it.

    More voices chime up as tiny rat-like creatures swarm from the wreckage nearby and start unburying the thing. "OR YOUR MONEY BACK!" they chant.

    It takes a few moments, but they unbury their defense weapon. It's a menacing mecha! Claws and dangerous looking weapons strapped to it... well it if wasn't like, 3 feet tall.

>> SUMMARY[Justina Thyme] >> The Mech: https://i.imgur.com/CWpBs.jpeg

    Yeah. Either the locals will approach or they won't. It's no skin off Morrigan's teeth as she nods to Li-Ming and stuffs her hands in the pockets of her robe.
    And then the nearby wall blows out.
    AND THEN THERE'S AN ATTACK ROBOT THAT...
    "Oh. That's... Kind of cute. But I'm worried about tetanus." She pauses for a moment to think before clearing her throat.
    "Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong?" She attempts at the mech and rat-beings.

Holly has a surprised look on her face as the wall of the building suddenly explodes. "But I didn't even cast any spells yet..." She's quickly distracted though hums off-key with the catchy news jingle before noticing the rat creatures and the robot. "Oh neat, did you build that?"

 "It looks a lot older than five years. I think the warranty ran out." Lavaux can't help but to wonder if the robot even functions.

 She turns towards Morrigan, she's fairly knowledgable about languages herself but it doesn't sound like anything she's heard before. "What does that mean?"

    Reckoning she has ever more to learn about this strange and expanded universe, Li-Ming shuts up and listens, taking in every detail she can to reference later when trying to find out more about all of these things. Knowledge is power and all that.

    The pursuit of knowledge must wait, it seems; a wall explodes and from beyond, senseless prattling that calls to mind overachieving street vendors. She turns calmly, prepared to bare her fury in full- 

    "Wait, what? You can't be serious-" Her right hand cups against her face, fingers spread and her shoulders tremble. Morrigan chimes in and she turns toward Holly, eyes pinched. She's clearly, desperately trying not to laugh out loud at the sight.

    "What in the- It's so tiny!" She steals another look, wipes her face with that hand and breathes in deep. She closes her eyes, exhales, then opens her eyes and nods again to Holly and her retinue. "Okay."

    She tilts her head, "What in the world did you just say?" Turning back to Morrigan and our, ah, host.

    Justina steps back a half-pace as the wall blows out. Her forearms have morphed into bludgeoning five-sided block-maces.

    Then, Morrigan speaks. "Bah-weep-graaaagnah wheep ni ni bong?" she asks incredulously.

    The mecha is starting to scamper forwards, arms raised aggressively... until Morrigan speaks and it stops dead. "Bah-wee-graaaagnah weep ni ni bong?!" asks the pilot incredulously, turning back to look at the other rat-creatures then back to Morrigan.

    "Oh good that actually worked." Morrigan says when EVERYONE asks what she just said.
    "It's sort of a universal greeting. Something like 'we come in peace' or 'care to dance?'" The Warlock explains setting her hands on her hips and looking smug for a beat. But then she looks right at the mecha, trying to reach out to the pilot with her mind. Thankfully her telepathy crosses all language barriers. It's a minor gift from her jerkwad patron, but she'll use it for now.
    . o O ( We come in peace! We only seek the teleportal plinth, and mean you no harm. )

    Li-Ming may well have meant harm at first but, upon seeing the denizens of this realm she's somewhat less inclined toward violence. At least she manages to collect herself so she can turn back and offer a proper greeting, hands spread in what she hopes will be acceptable as a gesture of peaceful intent.

    "Well done! I might have been helpless to stop such a... Contraption." She doesn't get too close, though she does bend at the waist a little to get a real good look at the handiwork of the rat-creatures.

    "Thankfully, their intent doesn't appear to be openly hostile. Simply defensive, territorial at worst." Morrigan's foray into the minds of these creatures is a bit beyond here, though she figures something's going on and waits to take any further action.

"That's good!" Holly's just happy they managed to avoid a fight. "I wonder what they built it to protect them from?" She figures there must be someone else here besides the rats if they need such a weapon. "It's kind of dangerous being that tiny..." She knows first hand from her roommate's experiments.

    The Mecha pilot seems to mull Morrigan's telepathic signal over for a moment or two. It then pops open the 'head' section, and stands up from the control seat. A slightly larger rat-creature folds its arms, and steps one foot up onto the edge of the cockpit. "Yes, friends!" it announces, then gestures past the now blocked path toward the teleportal. "And now, Teleportal. Feed the grand poobah! Eliminate even the toughest stains!" the other ratlings start clearing the rubble in a very rapid manner; efficient little buggers if nothing else. "Offer, hurry hurry hurry! Rush right on down and test drive latest model, with no obligation!" The leader ratling pauses as Li-Ming leans in to inspect the mech, its beady little eyes appriasing the magic user curiously, before closing the canopy and turning to lead the way.

    Justina hangs back with Holly for a moment or two. "Other tribes? They may not be a unified people. Only a few species can put aside their differences and unite in a single, world-spanning governance. Centria is even more rare, being made up of seven entirely different species in a tightly knit alliance." she suggests to the witch. "The entire world is covered by the refuse and detritus of a dozen, maybe more, civilisations that lived here before them. These could be only the latest to live in this... planet of junk."

    "Grand... Poobah..." Morrigan repeats, staring for a long moment. Offer... Hurry... Latest model...
    She's just kind of lost here.
    "Guys they're talking in old timey ads I don't know how to translate this."
    ... "Do we follow? I guess we follow?"

    Well. They're still not making any sense but at least they're smarter than she would have given them credit for on initial blush. Li-Ming meets the gaze of those beady eyes, inclines her head and then straightens as the machine operator sets about with a new purpose.

    "Well done; it seems violence would have been regrettable here. Though yes, I certainly don't know what they mean exactly I would guess, at the very least, that this is the best invitation we're going to get." She sweeps her armored left hand toward the cleared rubble. "Shall we?"

"I see, a dozen civilizations and none of them are still around? That's kind of sad, there must be some ghosts with that many people." Holly would have to look into it more after they find the teleportal. "That's true, but you would hope things would be peaceful after all of that.

 "So they have television here? I wonder where it's being broadcast from?" Lavaux can't help to be curious about where it's coming from. The trio follows the rats along with the others.

    The Mech-pilot, and a group of about twenty of the rat-creatures lead the group through the streets. No-one asks how they learned to speak, but the leader, in the mech, answers anyway. "We talk Tee vee!" he announces, lifting a small, portable TV set from the side of his machine, which is currently playing some sitcom. "You talk some Tee Vee?" he asks, turning to walk backward now, almost excited.

    Justina busies herself with triangulating the teleportal's location. "I mentioned the transceiver earlier. They are likely picking up various signals from the surrounding civilisations, I doubt that any transmissions are still being made locally." she points off to the right as they pass a large building in the center of an open courtyard-like area. It has a large dish antenna on the roof, pointed skyward. "There's the receiver I mentioned."

    "Uhhhh."
    They talk TV. Oh god they learned from the television. Morrigan looks perplexed until Mary Contrary stands on her shoulder and spreads her hands.
    "Ahem..." She says very importantly.
    "... Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. Darmok and Jalad on the ocean. Kiazi's children, their faces wet, Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel." The shinki says. ... Making the Warlock stop. Pause. And stare at her Familiar.

    Looking from Holly, her ghosts, then fixing Morrigan with a stare as her familiar begins speaking in strange idioms in reference to television. "It would seem that they've been under quite a few influences in the absence of..." What? Distinct culture? "I suppose, absent this, they would be completely without a mode of communicating with outsiders. Lucky, in a way."

    Stepping carefully around loose rubble, she looks forward past their miniature escort to the receiver, then on down in the direction we're all heading.

    "What do any of those idioms mean, anyway? Are they even...?" She should give up before her frustration with not being clued in invites any commentary.

Holly has a confused look on her face with all of this. She never watched that much TV herself. Her parents are rather old-fashioned despite living on a futuristic world and she goes to a college that still in the turn of the century.

 "I wonder if they've seen any of my matches. Sorry guys, kind of hard to give authographs without any arms." Lavaux frowns a bit at that.

 "Don't be stupid, who would watch those?" Servis can't help but to speak up. "Hey, I could have been huge if they just given me a push for once." The two ghosts bicker in the background.

    One of the smaller ratlings perks up at Mary. "Temba, his arms wide!" it squeaks. Then points. "The Beast at Tenagra." it's pointing the way they're going. "Tenagra, on the ocean. The beast? Izani, his army... shaka when the walls fell." it deflates a little, then gestures at the mech. "Wrek-jarl, his armour strong."

    The other ratlings look a bit puzzled. Maybe this one is from another tribe that got adopted? But they do nod in agreement in places.

    The group continues towards the teleportal. It's housed inside a small building that seems to be some kind of church, temple or the like. "We can ask them once we're done with our task, and perhaps investigate their tower while we're at it. They seem peaceful enough now they know we're not a threat." suggests Justina as she gives Mary a curious glance. "As for the earlier question, I've asked the Archemedes to keep a lock on my Doll's signal. They can teleport down equipment once we're at the site. Saves sending in more material than necessary while moving."

    Mary nods sagely at the ratling.
    "Life in the cave of Garanoga." She says.
    This prompts Morrigan to reach up... And gently flick her shinki on the nose. "No more internet for you if you're going to use it to learn memespeak."
    "A-awww!"

    The facade of a temple or suchlike never really sat well with Li-Ming, much less now that she's been through numerous experiences beneath such places. Frowning, she shields her eyes as she gazes ahead.

    "The rat creatures speak of a beast? Tenagra? I suppose that measures up. If it's to be a fight, I hope these creatures will remain from underfoot."

    She's decided that they're harmless and deserving of protection! Should there in fact be a beast to destroy, well. Gladly. "Until then, be on your guards. The beast may lurk at the teleportal device or it may lurk about stalking stragglers."

    A beat."

    "I only hope it's not a mundane housecat."

"So they're not the only ones here?" Holly's trying to piece together what they're talking about. "Meme? Is that like those funny drawings with the guy that says "Kilroy was here?" She remembers seeing that seeing at old warsites. "What's wrong with cats?" She's a witch, of course she likes cats.

    "From our perspective, cats are benign and even useful. From the perspective of our hosts?" Li-Ming spreads her hands. "I'm certain you can imagine."

    Justina pipes up. "Crossreferencing some sources, I believe it meant something much futher away than the teleportal... a rival tribe or some ancient construct guardian perhaps." she suggests, coming to a stop at the foot of the steps leading up to the doors. "Sending the request to Archemedes now... it'll take a few minutes to muster the equipment so we are free to look around. I will wait here for the delivery."

    The ratlings stop at the doors at the top of the steps, the leader hopping out of the mech and pushing at the doors. They open surprisingly easily and none of the ratlings show any signs of trepidation. No threats known here at least. "Teleportal! Feed the grand poobah!" he announces again, gesturing the others to follow him inside.

    Within the 'temple' various seating pews are arranged, and the teleportal itself makes up the main altar area, with a lecturn assembled just off of the main structure. As Morrigan, Li-Ming and Holly approach, the four corner pillars start to react and light up... but the central plinth doesn't raise. Perhaps they need to activate it.

"Oh right, a cat tried to eat me when I was I tranformed into a guinea pig." Holly realizes what Li-Ming is getting at now.

 "So their culture is based on television shows? Try clapping and saying clap on?" Lavaux suggests to the group.

 "Clap on!" The witch claps her hands together in front of the center plinth.

    The doors open and Morrigan enters, tapping her chin.
    "Feet the grand poobah... Feet the grand poobah..." She muses.
    "I don't think it works like the clapper." She says stepping up to the lectern and having a look over it.

    Li-Ming spares a look at the rats and their weird spin on spoken language, then moves on to the array. Or whatever this thing is. She skirts the rows of pews, stalks past the pillars and looks down onto them, passing two before finally deigning to hold a hand over one, reaching out with her magic sense.

    Juuuuust to be sure there's not a curse or horrific lurking presence or some other nefariousness waiting just beyond normal human perception.

    Surprisingly, Holly's clapping, and Li-Ming's sensing seem to trigger a pillar each. Li-Ming's lighting up brighter as it siphons some of the magic being thrown at it off. This magic travels down into the plinth base, and up into the central device, causing it to light up in the same hue as the pillar.

    Holly's clapping makes the closest pillar spark, crackle, then send a pulse of energy into the central dias in much the same way. Holly gets a few admirers from the ratlings, they cheer, and mimic her chant and clap, doing a little dance as they do so.

    "Oh. It's responding. Let's see..." Li-Ming considers a few options and, rather than continuing with the gradual application of energy she simply opens the taps, allowing an arc of electricity to lick from her fingertips to the pillar with an angry, snappy buzz. If it's driven by any sort of arcane energy, she has heaps to spare afterall.

    "Well, if this works, I suppose we've reached a solution to this..." She inclines her head, considering. "Was this even a problem?"

    Okay maybe the clapping does something.
    "Nevermind what I said, keep clapping." Morrigan says. "And what you're doing." To Li-Ming.
    Morrigan may not be as tech savvy as Circe the last time she saw this done but she'll start... Futzing with things and stuff like she knows what she's doing.
    "MAster I don't think 'faking it until we make it' will work." Mary Contrary points out.
    "Not now Mary I'm doing a thing!"
    "Oh! Oh doing a thing, got it, boss."

"It worked! Lavaux, do you remember any other old TV shows?" 

Holly wonders if any the ghost has any other sugggestions, "Let me think a moment...yes, but I don't want to say it out loud." He floats over and whispers something in her ear. "The rest of you might want to cover your ears, just warning you..."

 If her singing earlier wasn't enough of a warning the church is filled with the witch's attempt at music, "Lite Brite, Lite Brite turn on the magic of colored lights!"

    And as Morrigan does a thing, and Holly starts to 'sing', the other pillars react, and the central plinth rises from its recessed position... right under Morrigan's feet.

    It's about then that Justina comes in with the equipment. A couple of automoton Dolls, carrying large energy generators and associated equipment to hook them up.

    The central dias as ports that look surprisingly like standardized power coupling sockets. Justina directs the lesser Dolls to set up the equipment, hook up the generators and begin feeding power to the mechanism. The dias starts to retract back into the baseplate, slowly building a hum of energy, before it all goes silent again.

    The dias now has a floating sphere in the center, showing a simplified outline of the planet... and then another spherical construct materializes on the dias next to the hologram. "A thousand leaders will be born of You~." it sing-songs, dipping in greeting to those present before happily humming around and casually patrolling the interior of the temple.

"Man, I never though watching those commericals during kid's shows with my daughter would be useful." Lavaux sounds a bit surprised.

 "Holly, really does remind you of her doesn't she?" Servis notes.

"I wish I would have been able to spend more time with her." The ghost wrestler sighs a bit with that.

 "It's never too late, let's go track her down!" Holly's mind is easily taken off the the task at hand.

 "I'm not sure she would be able to even see me like this..."

    "Huh." Li-Ming stops trying to jolt the system into doing something and instead looks on as Holly sings to the thing. It's particularly confounding when it even seems to work. "Well done, then."

    So, she'll stand aside as actual logistical work begins, eyes following the spheroid construct as she mulls over it's singsong words. She can't help but search for some kind of sinister undertone to it's statement.

    She's momentarily distracted by the morose conversation from Holly's ghosts, mouth flattening into a line. If only her ghost were as wholesome. At least he's mercifully absent at times.